Brooklyn Rail - Art Review - November 26, 2018
Entering John Bock’s current exhibition, Dead + Juicy, provokes an immediate and profound sense of unease. The lobby of Anton Kern’s Upper East Side townhouse gallery has been transformed into a dimly lit room housing a dilapidated shack made from corrugated tin; a floor to ceiling curtain onto which a looped fragment of film is projected hangs opposite the shack. The film features a young woman running—perhaps being chased—through a jungle, or at least densely tangled brush, and eventually falling before an elderly, oracular woman with an animal’s jawbone tied to her face. It’s hard to be certain about the action because the ripples of the curtain, which mimic the corrugation of the tin roof, distort the film’s imagery. Through a window of the shack, a muted blue light glows, just barely illuminating some sort of creature that might be constructed of wood posts and metal cans. It’s not clear what we’re witnessing, but the unsettled ambiance feels palpable.